6 Tishrei 5725 (September 12, 1964) – Yahrtzeit of Rebbetzin Chana, Mother of the Rebbe

00:00 Speaker 1 Today we'll talk about the Yemei Chabad of the sixth day of Tishrei. That's Vav Tishrei. And this is in the year Taf Shin Chof He. Um, this is the yortzeit of the Rebbetzin, righteous memory, the Rebbetzin Chana. She was the mother of, of the Rebbe. Rebbe's mother, Rebbetzin Chana. And, um, the Rebbetzin Chana, uh, she was born on the twenty-eighth day of Teves in the year Taf Reish Mem in the city of Nikolaev. Um, her father was the rabbi. Uh, he was a great genius. He was a Hasid. His name was Rabbi Meir Shloime Yanovsky. Um, her mother's name, which means the Rebbetzin Chana's mother's name was Rochel. Um, on the thirteenth day of Sivan in the year Taf Reish Samech, she was twenty years old then, uh, the Rebbetzin, 'cause if she was born in Taf Reish Mem, and this is Taf Reish Samech. So when she was at the age of twenty, she got married to, uh, HaRav HaGaon, HaRav HaChasid, Reb Levi Yitzchok Schneerson. That's, of course, the Rebbe's father. So they got married then. Um, this, this puts it, you know, uh, the marriage a hundred and fourteen years ago. Um, so this was, uh, she was born, uh, would make it, uh, hundred and plus twenty, so it's, uh, a hundred and thirty-four years ago. But in any event, um, in the year Taf Reish Samech Beis, um, nearly two years after the marriage, their oldest son was born. That was the Rebbe. And, um, in the year Taf Reish

02:02 Speaker 1 Samech Tes, which is seven years later, um, he was called, Reb Levi Yitzchok, to become the rabbi of the city of Yekatirinoslav, which today is known as the Dnepropetrovsk. And, uh, for thirty years, uh, Reb Levi Yitzchok was the rabbi of Yekatirinoslav, and the Rebbetzin was at his side, uh, helping him out in all of his holy work. And the Rebbetzin, um, in addition to the fact that she was, uh, very knowledgeable, she knew, uh, understood, uh, the study and, uh, she was a lamdanit, meaning, uh, a scholar, a woman scholar. Uh, she also, uh, knew the Russian language very, very well, and she was a very, uh, intellectual and, uh, very pleasant. People liked her. She was a very pleasant person. And she was helped with her personality. She was able to contribute a lot to the success and to the influence of her husband, of the, of the rabbi, of Reb Levi Yitzchok. In Taf Reish Samech Tes, that is in nineteen thirty-nine, uh, Reb Levi Yitzchok, uh, was, uh, imprisoned, uh, actually because of his activity, uh, to try to strengthen Yiddishkeit in, in, under those circumstances. Uh, he was, uh, incarcerated, and then eventually they punished him to exile in the city of Chialy, which is some sort of a distant city in the country of Kazakhstan. And as soon as the Rebbetzin found out where her husband is, she immediately, um, joined him. She, despite the difficulties, uh, the dangers and, uh, to, to, to go to her husband. But

04:12 Speaker 1 when she came to Chialy, she was able to successfully ease some of the troubles and some of the pain and the suffering of her husband. And she also made an invaluable spiritual contribution because she was able to produce with her own hands ink, uh, and also she was able to get paper so that her husband should be able to write down, uh, his outstanding novelties and teachings of Torah, uh, which eventually, uh, thirty years later, uh, have seen the light of the print. They were printed by the Rebbe thirty years later. Anyone who knew her knew that she was a woman who had, uh, tremendous outstanding characteristics and, uh, just very few people had that greatness. And she suffered many years of pain and, and troubles, uh, whether it was during the time that her husband was, uh, incarcerated in the, uh, and he was in exile. Uh, later on, she became a widow from her husband. Um, she remained all by herself amongst millions of wild animals, you know, under those circumstances. Um, and, um, people did not like or revere anybody with the name Schneerson was, uh, automatically, um, looked at in a, in a bad eye. And, um, notwithstanding his, all this, she never complained to Hashem, never-- Accepted everything with love. Uh, she was never sad. Her eyes never expressed any bitterness. And her pain, she sort of contained within herself in her own heart, and she never told it to anybody. In the year Taf Shin Zayin, so that's in

06:25 Speaker 1 nineteen forty-seven, finally her troubles and all of her tribulations and travels came to an end when she, in some miraculous way, was able to leave Russia, and she came to Paris. Over there she was met by her oldest son, by the Rebbe. Uh, she hadn't seen him for twenty years. From Paris, they both traveled to New York. Over there, a new period began for the Rebbetzin, uh, uh, a period of real joy with her son becoming the leader of Chabad in the year of Taf Shin Yud in nineteen fifty. The Rebbe would give a tremendous amount of honor. He would, on a daily basis, visit her. And on Shabbos and in the weekday-- Thank you.

07:27 Speaker 2 Yeah.

07:28 Speaker 1 Uh, he would always be there, make sure to go visit his mom. He was there every single day. In a, uh, gathering for the yortzeit of Av Tishrei in the year Taf Shin Nan Vav, the Rebbe said as follows: "Notwithstanding all her difficulties and all her worries in the day-to-day life, she took upon herself, um, the Rebbetzin Chana, an additional worry, how she would be able to publicize the teachings, the Torah of my father," of her husband, "uh, in such a way so that many others should be able to study, to enjoy the interpretations, the commentary on the inner parts of Torah based on the Chabad teachings. And all this was done, she did it all in order to bring the redemption, the true complete redemption closer through Moshiach Tzvkainu, which depends on being able to publicize the wellsprings all the ways to the outside." In Brooklyn is where the Rebbetzin lived her seventeen last years, uh, till she passed away on Shabbos, on the sixth day of Tishrei, it was Shabbos Shuva, in the year Taf Shin Chof He. And, um, there are many institutions that were established, and they were named under, uh, by her name, like Beis Chana, and she's interned at the, uh, cemetery back in the-- not far from the oil. On the other side of the oil was the grave site of the Rebbe. She's on the, um, the women's section over there. And like everything else, if one wants to, uh, learn how one needs to cherish a

09:22 Speaker 1 mother or how one needs to respect and how to cause, uh, pleasure, is, you know, the Rebbe is the first one that we can, we can see. Matter of fact, um, when the Rebbe's brother died, um, and, uh, that was during her lifetime, sh- she-- the Rebbe didn't want his mother to find out because he didn't wanna cause her, uh, any, uh, agmas nefesh, any pain, because he, he knew that she would take it, uh, very, uh, very badly. And the Rebbe would send postcards. Uh, these were not really from his brother. Uh, he would go to the post office, pretend as if it's, if it's he writing, and he would continue sending postcards for the new year, whatever it is, uh, so that she should believe that he's still around. That's the extent the Rebbe would-- went to protect his mother from any, uh, sort of, uh, uh, uncomfortable or any pain. And, you know, it's just amazing. And, uh, we all know the Rebbe's schedule. The Rebbe didn't know then, but still he, uh, he made sure every single day to visit. He'd also serve his mother, like give her a, a cup of tea, uh, something like that, to, to give the honor. Uh, she lived not too far from Seven seventy, like a few blocks on President Street. Uh, she lived over there in a-- one of the apartments over there. So, so this is the, the yortzeit is of Av Tishrei.